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Monday, July 20, 2009

Leafy Lettuce Salad

Leafy Lettuce Salad

I remember this salad, as a small girl growing up.My mother lived off a mere $50 a month budget for groceries.She needed to feed a family of 7 plus all the hired hands.She had a gift of hospitality, and knew how to make her pennies stretch.

Actually, she always asked God how she could make her budget last....

She worked hard and always had a garden and since I'm not working out of the home,I've made every effort to grow a garden again. I love sharing this with the grand kids.We've made some raised garden beds this year, which takes away from all that back braking work.This week I called my sister to see what Mom's secret recipe contained.

Leafy Lettuce Salad

8 cups of Leafy garden lettuce.

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup cream

1/2 vinegar

Blend the sugar and cream together and then add the vinegar.Pour over your leafy lettuce.Yum!!!Do any of you remember this lettuce salad?

Add some freshly fried potatoes.We have been enjoying those cooked first baby potatoes.If there are leftovers, you make fried potatoes.My mom always made those. Nothing was ever wasted.Cut your potatoes up fine,Add some butter (1/4 C.) into a frying pan and turn the element on to High.Don't run away!!!Fry these potatoes quickly and let them get crisp.Add a bit of salt & pepper and a fresh tomato and away you go.Simple, yet nutritious for this time of year.

Check out your local markets and see if you can't bring home that old fashioned cooking.

Oh Marg.....it is 5:30 a.m. and I am just checking out my fav. blogs before heading to the airport to go back to see my Dad and visit my mother's graveside in little 'prairieville'. How your post brought back memories and tears to my eyes. So familiar...the whole post...the scrimping...the ability to...with God's help....feed the family from 'two loaves and five fish'. The salad is exactly, exactly, exactly what Mom would make and with fried potatoes...yes....we depended on the gifts of other's to eat and potatoes that were lovingly crispy fried would help to feed us all. Sometimes she would chop up white onion and let it soak in vinegar and sugar and would serve that along side the potatoes and maybe a slice or two of 'ring bologna' (sausage). Oh Marg...I am tearing again....Thanks for sharing this as I go back home. My Dad is ordering 'gravin' (is that how you spell it?) so we can have another food memory.

Marg, I so well remember my mom cutting fresh lettuce and putting on this simple dressing.Fried potatoes was also on the menu once a week . .to use up all the cooked potatoes. Never was anything wasted.

I love your website! I usually check in every morning. The lettuce salad brought back many memories. The late 30's and early 40's in Southern Alberta. My mom made the the same dressing with fresh lettuc from the garden and the fried potatoes!! Guess what I will be having for supper!

We did a similar dressing but it also had miracle whip in it and milk instead of cream. Actually I just made it the other day when I was tired of bought dressings. And sometimes my mom would put hardboiled eggs (sliced) with the lettuce. Usually when we had fried potatoes we also had eggs instead of salad. I love reading your blog!

These things bring back memeories for me too. Fried potatoes were a regular meal at our house - whether made from leftover cooked potatoes or fresh ones. My mom also mixed up a sweet leafy lettuce salad with lemon and sugar.I remember my parents coming home from getting groceries and my dad would check the whole grocery list and make sure the cashier had punched in the prices correctly. I think the weekly cost of feeding the family was around $20- $25 in the late sixties.

I had to smile at this recipe and your little note along with it I too remember many a simple salad with fried potatoes or fried left over noodles. I can taste it now. Our Moms really knew how to make the budget stretch in the grocery area, and yet the food was wonderfully flavorful. Kathy

I have a question for any of you who know about growing your salad. I'm growing spinach for the first time. Today I harvested some of it to go with the Romaine that I am growing. Oh it was yummy. My spinach has a couple different shape leaves, some rounded and some wrinkley with pointy leaves. Both types of leaves on the same plant. They taste the same. If I was going to can spinach, do I use both types of leaves or just one or the other? I used both types in my salad today.Thanks for any answers.Michelle

We live in central Illinois so the time for lettuce is past. But our supper this week has, for the most part, been new potatoes and green beans and tomatoes from our garden, and home-made bread. Last night we also had fresh sweet corn for the first time this year.

No recipe in the world could make a better dinner than freshly picked vegetables and homemade bread.

Oh yes...the memories! Fresh leafy lettuce salad and fried potatoes...a gourmet meal on a budget. I would be quite happy with it still...especially if my mom would prepare it for me. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for visiting our blog.I have never canned spinach. We usually eat it fresh...but I will check to see if anyone out there can help you with your request.I think I would probably tend to can them together, as they are from the same family...I know that I love to mix the salad leaves,and as you said, they are delicious.

I don't think I ever ate a salad with that type of dressing. I do make a tossed salad with crasings that uses a sweet dressing made from apple cider vinager and sugar and ...oh, can't remember off hand.But, it doesn't have the milk.I'll have to try this one!

We also had fried potatoes, possibly with onions cut up in them, but we used fresh potatoes, not cooked ones. I still love potatoes fried that way -- a piece of bacon included gives them a wonderful smell and taste!

Meanwhile, I have posted two very good recipes that use summer grown squash on my blog. You can see these at...http://jesswe2.blogspot.comBaptist girls can cook, too!

My mother was left a widow in her 30s with seven children and no income. I came along later (she married my dad and had me in her 40s).

However, I've heard all the stories of how the stretched their meals. My oldest sister told me they grew a lot of lettuce and had wilted salads which had a similar dressing (no milk I think) that Mom warmed up first.

I remember this dressing as a kid too. My Granny you to make it all the time, we ate it with chopped leafy lettace and tiny bite size tomatoes. I have everything to try it with my own five kids this evening, even 3 big baked taters that were left over from a couple days ago. I was just thinking to myself what to do for tonight! Thanks so much for walking me down memory lane.~MichelleCwww.yankeegalscafe.com

This was my favourite salad as a child. I remember going with Dad to cut the lettuce (instead of pulling it so it would grow back)- Such a simple and delicous salad One that appeared on every Mennonite table. My only question is: how did it take this long for one of us to post it? Thanks Marg!